Search for missing U of C student continues

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Search for missing U of C student continues

Search efforts resumed today for a University of Chicago student who went missing last week.

It has been almost a week since Austin Hudson-Lapore disappeared from the University of Chicago campus. Lapore had just finished taking his last exam to complete his junior year.

His family thinks that the weather may have drawn him to the lake.

Today, Austin’s mother is reviewing surveillance video while his father is walking the lakefront and the parks near campus.

Walking near the city’s lakefront, Austin’s father Gregg Lapore is a long way from his home in New Mexico. He dropped everything last week when he received a call telling him that his 20-year-old son was missing.

Almost a week later, there is little chance that the future biochemist is alive, but his father refuses to give up the search.

“Austin really enjoyed weather and was fearless about the outdoors,” said Gregg Lapore.

That is what prompted Robert Larson, a volunteer K-9 handler to get involved. Larson spent 12 hours a day for 30 straight days looking for Breyon Hunter, the one-year-old Maywood boy allegedly murdered and dumped in the Des Plaines River. He found the boy’s remains.

Larson would like to help the Lapore family if he is able.

Dexter is his 3-year-old cadaver dog with a nose that doesn’t lie. Today, Dexter smelled something near the rocks at 57th Street and the lake.

Later Dexter and his owner combed the Japanese garden just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. These were all places that Austin liked to roam.

Police continued their search by circling the area overhead. They have given up their water search. They say time is no longer on their side.

Still Gregg Lapore presses on saying hope is what keeps him going.

“Hopefully we will find some sort of clarity today,” said Gregg Lapore.

The private search has concluded for the day, and will resume again Wednesday.